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Supreme Court drops contempt case against Kerala Minister Kutty

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday closed suo motu contempt proceedings initiated by the Kerala High Court against Local Self-Government Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty for his speech allegedly denigrating the judiciary.

Acting on his special leave petition (SLP), a Bench consisting of Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam disposed of the matter. The court had in May 2007 stayed all further proceedings pursuant to the Minister’s statement, made on January 30, 2007, published by vernacular newspapers.

Counsel K.K. Venugopal said Mr. Kutty’s statement was not intended to denigrate the judiciary.

The Bench said: “The petitioner had filed affidavits in the High Court and in this court tendering an unconditional apology. In the affidavit, he had stated that his statements were never intended to denigrate courts and he has the highest regard for the judicial system. In his speech, he had only referred to the high cost of litigation due to the high cost of advocate fees. In view of this, the contempt proceedings are dropped.”

In his SLP, Mr. Kutty said he had suffered grave prejudice on account of a distorted and incorrect interpretation by the media of one part of his speech. What he stated was that he believed that people from backward sections found it extremely difficult to effectively put forth their point of view before the courts on account of the very high cost of litigation.

He said a mere press publication by itself was not evidence when he had explained what he intended conveying. However, his unconditional apologies were not accepted by the High Court, which directed that charges be framed. Mr. Kutty said he was not under an obligation to tender any apology to the general public as directed by the High Court. For, Section 12 of the Contempt of Court Act 1974 stipulated apology to the court and not to others. He sought quashing of the impugned order dated April 13, 2007.

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